Conventionally, there have been suggested various kinds of a label data creating apparatus, a label data creating method, and a computer program product for creating and editing print data to be printed on a long tape, and transferring the print data to a tape printer.
For instance, a conventional label data creating apparatus comprises a data creating device, a key assigning unit and a transferring unit. The data creating device creates various kinds of data such as custom font data of bit map data and template data of print format (the number of letters, a font and the like), by means of the data creating device, a data storage unit a display control unit or the like which are achieved by a CPU, based on a signal inputted by a keyboard and a mouse. The key assigning unit assigns a selection key of a tape printer to each kind of the data. The transferring unit transfers the template data and the like which is assigned by the selection key, to the tape printer. (For instance, Japanese Patent Application laid-open No. 2004-157912 (paragraphs [0020] to [0058], FIGS. 1 to 11)).
With the above-described structures, the label data creating apparatus can perform through every operations such as the data creating operation of creating the various kinds of data including the template data and the assigning operation of assigning the selection key to the data, thereby simplifying these operations and developing an efficiency of the operations.
Herein, one example operation of label data creating and transferring process in the label data creating apparatus described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12.
In the conventional label data creating apparatus as shown in FIG. 11, at S101, the CPU of the label data creating apparatus creates template data. The CPU creates the template data including characters by adding thereto the information on the size of the print-area frame which is allocated the print area of the character string, instead of setting the size of the characters, and at S102, transfers the template data to the tape printer. The reason why the size data of the print-area frame is added to the template data is as follows: the label tape which is created by using the template of the tape printer has a size limitation depending on an area to which the label tape to be adhered, so that the label tape which is printed the required information needs to be adhered to the limited area.
On the other hand, on the tape printer side as shown in FIG. 12, at S111, the CPU of the tape printer performs text editing to assign the label data inputted by the keyboard to each print-area frame of the template. At S112, the CPU performs pre-print process to lay out the label data using the stored fonts as large as possible, in each block as the print-area frame of the template. Next at S113, the CPU executes determination process to determine whether any error, such as the absence of the tape cassette, occurs or not. If there is no error (S113 : NO ERROR), the CPU proceeds to the process at S114. At S114, the CPU executes determination process to determine whether the height of the block in the template is as tall as or taller than the height of the minimum font size. If the height of the block is as tall as or taller than the height of the minimum font size (S114 : YES), the CPU prints the print data on the tape, and ends the process at S115. On the contrary, if there is any error (S113 : ERROR OCCURS), or if the height of the block in the template is shorter than the height of the minimum font size (S114 : NO), the CPU proceeds to the process at S116. At S116, the CPU displays the error message, and ends the process.
This makes it possible to eliminate the inconvenience of setting the character size every time when the user lays out the characters in each print-area frame of the template. Also, this can avoid the occurrence of the error by the mismatch between the block size indicating the print area of the template and the size of the fonts stored in the tape printer.
As shown in FIG. 12, however, in the case where the characters cannot be arranged within the block even when the block height is taller than the height of the minimum font size, an error occurs just before printing. In such a case, the user again needs to modify the template in the label data creating apparatus, and transfer the modified template to the tape printer, which charges the user the additional tasks.